Key element of 3 focused on the role of the market to advance sustainable development and therefore in meeting the challenges of environmental concerns.

Environmental populism

Ecological Modernisation

One such theme is the idea of a ‘mainstream’ version of sustainable development – that which has been accepted by many governments and development organisations and which has been promoted through key documents (such as Our Common Future) and major international conferences, summits and agreements (such as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – ‘Rio+20’), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The idea of the ‘ladder of sustainable development’ is then introduced; this is a useful concept because it identifies and explains some of the main tensions and dividing lines that emerge in debates about sustainable development more generally. The ladder of sustainable development also implies that a ‘spectrum of sustainability’ exists – and that the diverse views and positions of individuals and organisations may be located at varying points on that spectrum. The distinctions between different types of sustainable development are not merely of academic or semantic interest: they betray profound philosophical differences about human well-being and environmental protection; they give rise to very different policy approaches; and they have important ramifications for development practice. In general terms, it is possible to characterise most ‘official’ approaches to sustainable development as being weak (or very weak); it is important to acknowledge that much stronger versions of sustainable development exist that would lead to very different types of development policy and practice.